Pardee Homes

Pardee Homes says its employees, strong subcontractor relationships and innovations are the keys to its success.

By Bianca Herron

George Pardee Sr. founded Pardee Homes in 1921 to build homes in the Los Angeles area. From there, the business continued to grow and his son, George Pardee Jr., took over the business and expanded into other markets, including San Diego and Las Vegas.

Today, the Pasadena-based company also operates in the Inland Empire. As it approaches its 95-year anniversary next year, the company has deep roots in every community where it builds, according to Jimmy Ayala, division president for San Diego.

“I’ve been with the company almost 14 years and we pride ourselves in being strong members of the community,” Ayala says. “For example, in San Diego, we build master-plan communities, the smallest of which can be 400 home sites and the largest about 3,000.”

Pardee Homes has built more than 56,000 homes and some of their outstanding master-planned communities in San Diego include Pacific Highlands Ranch, Ocean View Hills and Sabre Springs.

“We entrench ourselves in the community; working with local planning groups and civic leaders to design a community that is reflective of the needs of the broader community,” Ayala says. “We also work to understand our neighbors and the markets that we’re in so that we can offer a variety of housing types that appeal to a wide range of buyers.”

In addition, for most of its master-planned communities, Pardee Homes works with local school districts to help them acquire school sites within its community. “We not only work with the school district and schools, but with the city as well,” Ayala explains. “It’s very important that as a company we foster strong collaborative relationships and demonstrate our commitment to the community by providing scholarships to high-performing seniors headed to college, sponsoring neighborhood fun runs and hosting celebrations within the community.”

In 2014, Pardee Homes was acquired by TRI Pointe Group and is now under its umbrella with five sister companies that build throughout the United States: TRI Pointe Homes in California and Colorado; Quadrant Homes in the Puget Sound area; Maracay Homes in Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz.; TrendMaker Homes in Houston and Austin, Texas; and Winchester Homes in Maryland and Northern Virginia.

“Under the leadership of TRI Pointe Group, we have renewed energy and vigor,” Ayala says. “Combining the history of Pardee Homes and our strong brand position in the industry with the new energy and innovation of the TRI Pointe Group has been a great mix.”

Innovation First

Pardee Homes’ employees set it apart from its competitors. “The people who work here are our competitive advantage,” notes Ayala. “The amount of experience our talented employees have is invaluable.”

In addition, its team members help to continually develop innovative, consumer-driven, inspiring designs for its homes, which on average at Pardee Homes San Diego sell for $1 million, and include entry level to move-up and luxury single-family detached homes.

“As homebuilders, we are creating inspirational design that stimulates our buyers to see new designs and features that they need,” Ayala says. “Our San Diego market has a warm climate, which is why we offer clients a home with a number of great indoor and/or outdoor living options, including what we call a GenSmart Suite ™. Whether they have parents coming to live with them or children returning home from college, we’re creating homes that include secondary private entrances that can accommodate a high volume of clients looking for this next-generation-type living space in their home.

“At Pardee Homes we believe that design matters,” Ayala added. “We want the innovative design and the flow of the layout to make sense to our client when they’re considering one of our homes. Ultimately, we want them to select us for our inspirational architecture and thoughtful design combined with a quality product buyers know they can trust.”

Pardee homes’ clients vary from teachers, nurses and technology employees to professors at universities and financial institutions. “For example, [our] clientele define quality first by what they see and feel in our homes. Secondly, after 95 years, our reputation speaks for itself. Our clients know that Pardee Homes is a company they can trust. In the event something were to fail in the home, our clients know that we are going to be there for them today, tomorrow and until the matter’s resolved.”

Setting Standards

Over the years, sustainability has become very important in California with its rigorous building codes, as well as an expectation of home buyers. Since 1998, Pardee Homes has been a progressive leader in green building with its LivingSmart™ signature features.

“We consider ourselves a pioneer in green building because we started our LivingSmart™ program nearly 20 years ago,” Ayala says. “Every home includes standard and optional features that foster healthy living. For example, HealthSmart includes the use of low formaldehyde insulation, low-VOC interior paint packages and special minimum efficiency reporting value (MERV) air filters. We also offer EnergySmart technology – which reduces energy bills and utilities –and EarthSmart, which features stain-resistant carpets that are made from recycled materials. In addition, we offer landscape design that conserves water usage. Our LivingSmart ™ homes are designed with these four components in mind.”

Strong Relationships

With a 95-year history, Pardee Homes has many long-standing vendor relationships, some of which have worked with the company for multiple decades. According to Ayala, it comes with the territory when the company has also been building in San Diego for more than five decades and the relationships with its subcontractors have grown from generation to generation.

“Like Pardee’s deep roots, many of our vendors are family businesses. A father and grandfather may have started a particular subcontracting company that the Pardee family began using many years ago and now their children are running the company,” he explains. “Foshae Electric is one of those wonderful, long-standing partners. We really pride ourselves on having partners that we grow with, which stems from letting our trade partners know ahead of time where we’re going to build and when we’re going to build so that they can plan their business accordingly.

“It’s also as simple as treating them like true business partners,” Ayala added. “Whether it’s out in the field or in the office, we are only as good as our trade partners. So as labor gets tight, we can rely on our great labor partnerships to be there for us when we need them.”

Sidebar: Award-winner

Pardee Homes is not only a company with longevity, a strong reputation and a cultivator of strong vendor relationships, it’s also an award-winner. This year the company won the San Diego Business Journal’s 2016 Best Places to Work award, and in 2015, the San Diego Union-Tribune voted Pardee Homes as Best New HomeBuilder in the county of San Diego.

“Pardee was also one of the first builders to receive the California Division of Occupational Safety & Health’s Voluntary Protection Program Designation, which we won for 12 consecutive years,” San Diego Division President Jimmy Ayala says. “The award recognizes and promotes our effective worksite based on safety and health. It’s part of our program where we are partners with our vendors’ business, and together we strive to ensure that everyone builds homes safely at the end of every day.”